Got the news while here in Belgium on vacation. Too bad for US (both the pronoun and the abbreviation). I have attended all eight races at Tony George's facility, and while I agree that the track could be a more interesting one, no other venue offered anywhere near the access to the F1 drivers, techies and related folk than did Indy. It was always possible to acquire driver autographs with little more than a bit of chutzpah and knowing when and where to be. I for one will really miss my trips to Indy for the USGP. Thank you for hosting a great event Mr. George.

I was at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit earlier this week, seeing the DTM - 24 Hours of Spa practice sessions (F1 was testing here last week). Been eight years since I was last here, they've done some big improvements to the track (from my perspective of the area I visited - roughly bus stop to the kemmel straight for those of you who know the circuit). Refreshed pit facilities for the teams, new grand stands, should be a kick-a$$ week end come September. About the sadest casualty at Spa has been the loss of the little Cadeau shop at the corner up from La Source that used to have all the model cars. Seems that they went out of business several years ago and that no one has re-opened it, pity.

 

Man, Hamilton got F'ed hard core this morning.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2007/7/6509.html
Some theories include loose wheel nut, suspension failure, a loose screw cutting the wheel... Either way, that tire deflated quick and the result wasn't pretty.

 

Yup..................good news is that he is OK. Great news is that he most likely won't be on the podium and Ferrari will cut into that 25 point constructors lead as well as the WDC lead. But he will be fun to watch and I bet they change his fuel strategy.....

 

I don't think he can change his fuel strategy. He had to declare race fuel going into Q3.

Alan

 

Just curious . . . I keep hearing references to the attendance of this year's USGP being no more than 75,000.

I was at the race and felt the crowd was greater than last year's GP . . . and would've guessed the number to be well over 100,000.

??

 

for F1 (or other races at the venue). I agree that there seemed to be at least as many folks at the 07 event as were at 06 (with 20,000 freebie Michelin tix). Still for those who remember the cold, wet dreary F1 opener from September, 2000 (where the crowd was at least 200,000 - 250,000) the more recent races have been light on attendance.

 

twin post.

 

rain = CHAOS!!!

 

What a pass by Alonso on Massa for that win!

 

Based upon the past two years, I'd contend it takes more than a "casual" F1 fan to endure the shade challenged summer heat at Indy.

I definitely thought that there were many, many more people at this year's GP, but if those estimates are correct I simply don't see where the money was coming from.

 

That was one HECK of a race! Had just about everything: rain, major shuffle in the orders, WINKLEHOCK in the lead (that was great!), lots of good passing, and Fred winning it.

Loved it!

 

Pretty good race, Ferrari blew a chance to close in on the constructors championship.............anybody find out what happened to poor Kimi? some speculated he ran out of gas!

 

I don't think Matchett's fun with the 'alleged' empty gas tank was an accurate description of what was happening.

Kimi had actually reeled the two leaders in fairly easily, and then appeared to sit right behind Alonso for several laps. Later on, he started to drop back and lost an increasing amount of time on the leaders.

This seems to support the team's claim that the problem (whatever it was) appeared earlier on and eventually got worse.

 

Yes.............I meant during the race.

Cool race though as rain always makes for a great race to watch. Interesting tid bit about Scott Speeds' altercation after getting back to the pits:

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/38913/

Too bad for him and I hope he gets to finnish the season.

 

Bob Varsha was on Wind Tunnel tonight and said the official explanation from Ferrari is Kimi's car suffered a hydraulics failure. Reading between the lines, Bob says that means it was the gearbox.

Odd weather can make for a crazy race, but I don't understand what happened with Hamilton. First, he was able to continue racing after having his car removed from the gravel trap with a forklift. I thought stranded cars were stranded for good in F1. Second, he was given his lap back while the cars prepared to restart after the red flag. That baffled me. I know NASCAR has the "lucky dog" rule where the leading lapped car gets back onto the lead lap when a caution comes out, but does anyone know what happened today?

 

I'll second the question.

I'm also puzzled by the time vs distance thing. I thought the race should have been ended by the clock, but they ran it out to the full distance.....why?

 

Did the two hour clock expire? I wasn't keep track, the race was getting too exciting!

 

The race ran over 2:05. I too am baffled ast o why Ham was given his lap back when he was already at the rear of the field. If he had scored points there would certainly be strong questions if there aren't already.

 

Over on the speedtv.com forums there is clarification of Hamilton unlapping himself. The rules for 2007 allow lapped cars who are infront of the leaders when the SC is out to unlap themselves.

"But Lewis was already at the back," you say.

True, but when the SC first came out, Lewis was 2nd in line behind Winkelhock. For some reason he ended up at the back of the grid by the time the red flag came out.

He shouldn't have been back there, though, so when the cars rolled out behind the SC again he was waved around. It seems the stewards corrected their mistake of putting him at the back.

As for him rejoining the race after being lifted by a forklift: From what I read the marshals are told to help a stranded car back onto the track if the car is running and that is the easiest way to clear the area. Typically such a car would be too damaged to continue anywhere other than to the pits, but I guess you are allowed to race if you are able.

 

The rule is to move lapped cars around the SC (and to the back of the grid) to get them out of the way of cars still on the lead lap. When they restarted under the SC he was already last on the grid so he was already out of the way. I think the reason they waved him around was to make him follow the letter of the rule by passing the SC, using the gas to make the lap, etc. He was second in the order when the red flag came out (or when the SC came out?) and he parked that way when the SC stopped them on the grid under red, but the McLaren mechs put his car up on dollies and pushed it to the rear of the grid. I assume they figured that was the same as him going around.....?

As to the help getting Hamilton back out of the gravel, I'm sure you got that one right. It's certainly not the first time it's happened. I remember the same sort of confusion a few years back when Schumi got a few corner workers to push his car out of the gravel so he could rejoin.

 

The difference between Schumachers push, and what they did for Hamilton, Reubens, etc., was the race was red flagged. Might have made the difference.

 

Hamilton rejoined prior to the red flag.....

 

He was second behind the SC. He rejoined the race prior to the red flag.

I forgot about the McLaren mechanics moving him to the back of the grid - that's how he got there! It was their mistake to do that (I guess). Obviously he was better off going around past the leader because that allowed him to get his lap back.

 

I seem to recall the red flag coming out before the crane was hoisting the cars out of the kitty litter.

 

Did anyone else catch after Q3 when Ferrari was on the mic to Kimi and all you hear is "Kimi, Kimi we need to keep the ..." and it goes dead. So funny because they have total control over what the announcers and audience hears. I got a good laugh out of it.